Contents

Description

Typically the frazioni cover villages surrounding the principal
town (the capoluogo) of a comune. Subdivision of
a comune is optional, some comuni have no
frazioni, but others have several dozen.

In practice, most frazioni are small villages or
hamlets, occasionally a mere clump of houses, although being such a
place is not requisite. Nor is every hamlet a frazione;
those that are not are often referred to as località, for
example in the telephone book. In some occasions frazioni
can be more populated than the capoluogo of the comune.
Very occasionally, due to unusual circumstances or to the
depopulation of the capoluogo, the town hall and its
administrative functions can move to one of the frazioni:
the comune, however, still retains the name of the
capoluogo.

History

Historically, many frazioni came into being during the
Fascist period, when a major
effort was made to consolidate and rationalize the territorial
subdivisions of the country. Sometimes, a frazione
represents a former comune felt at some point to be no
longer viable.

Formerly, they were established, and their borders defined, by
the central government, except in the case of the five autonomous
regions (see Regions of Italy), where this was done
at the regional level. Under
the terms, however, of Legislative Decree 267/2000 in
implementation of amendments to Title V of the Italian
Constitution, the frazioni are now defined at the
comune level.

Officers

Under the former legislation, a frazione had the option
of having a prosindaco (submayor), who was appointed by
the mayor (il sindaco)
of the comune, often on the recommendation of deliberative
bodies such as the communal council (consiglio) or the
giunta, or as a result of a petition by enough residents
of the frazione involved; although there was no official
provision for groups of frazioni joining forces with the
appointment of a single prosindaco, the case was frequent
enough. Under current law, however, Article 54 of the d.lgs.
267/2000 provides that a mayor may delegate mayoral functions at
the frazione level to a councillor of the
comune.

In many comuni, in addition to their advisory function,
the frazioni are endowed with their own clerks and
recorders of deeds, but do not maintain their own civil
records.